Bring Only What You Love

Your awareness will determine whether you’re “successful”. It took me about ten years of looking for the secret to success in processes like goal setting and time management before I realized that it was how I looked at and felt about my past experiences and current circumstances that was determining my level of success.

When I was in my mid-twenties I hated my job. I worked for a large national bank in a branch office in Center-City, Philadelphia. I was responsible for hundreds of thousands of dollars, had keys to the branch, the combination to the vault and had received my first professional award. I even had the privilege of attending one of the most popular and successful professional development/management training programs in the country. But if you would have asked me back then if I thought of myself as successful, more than likely I would have broke down in tears and told you how unsuccessful I felt because I wasn’t making “x” amount of dollars, hadn’t completed my college education and that I was consumed with fear about the possibility of not making it out of my “dead-end” job, even though I had been promoted three times!

I couldn’t see for looking. All I saw was what I did not want. I did not want to be a worker-bee stuck in a traditional 9 to 5, I did not want to be broke. I did not want to appear ignorant and uneducated. I was so focused, so aware of what I did not want, that it “what I did not want”, became the dominant yet unconscious point from which I made decisions, did all my asking (ok, really, all my “Lord please” begging) and the place where I held my true intentions, what I really wanted hostage. Although, I didn’t know it at the time, I was in actuality developing a pattern of awareness, a mindset, a way of seeing that was rooted in lack.

Because that was my mindset receiving "what I did not want" became the experience that played itself out in every aspect of my life, over and over again. I didn’t want to be broke… I struggled financially. I didn’t want to be a worker-bee… I attracted low-level jobs where I had to work hard and prove myself. I didn’t want to be alone… my romantic relationships failed and my friendships were in turmoil. I wasn’t succeeding at anything… or so I thought.

After years of struggle and trying to figure out why I wasn’t moving forward, I had a breakthrough. While packing to move to a new apartment I had this thought, “Bring only what you love”.

Obeying the directive I made three piles; things to keep, things to give away and things to throw out. In the things to keep pile (which contained only things I loved and regarded as valuable) I had placed an award I received while working at the bank, a newspaper clipping of the Debutante Cotillion I attended when I was in high school, a recognition award for volunteering, my college degree (which I had received five years earlier) and the Certificate of Excellence award I received upon graduation. Surrounded by my things to keep, I began to see my past and myself in a new light. I recognized that in all that I did there was a thread, a pattern of excellence weaving its way through my life experiences that I had previously been blind to. Immediately I began to feel good and proud about where I had been, what I’ve done and who I was. I could feel my energy shifting, becoming lighter, more relaxed and confident in my ability to achieve excellence and experience “success”. After all I had done it before and didn’t even know it.

“Imagine what I could do when consciously creating???”

When I got to my new apartment I wanted to remind myself of the excellence and success in my past so I created a “Wall of Success”. I hung my awards, the newspaper clipping, etc. above my desk. I spend a little time focusing my attention on my “Wall of Success” everyday. And when I sit down to do work I am conscious of the fact that I am building on the success I already have, bringing only what I love to my present moment and future endeavors.

It's been three years since I created that "Wall of Success" and in that time my life has changed and dramatically... somehow I found the courage to step out on my own and build a "personal growth and success" business. Hmm. Yes!

What are you bringing to your present and future moments? Sift through your things, find items you love and that make you feel good and proud about who you are. Place them where you can see them. Create a “Wall of Success” in your home and/or office. I guarantee that by focusing your attention in the direction of your success, your energy will change, you will feel better and create more of what you want and less of what you don’t want.